Chicago · Oktoberfest 2026
Oktoberfest in Chicago
Sixteen days, a liter at a time: the beer halls, the Bavarian rooms and the Loop's oldest German kitchen.
Munich's festival runs from the third Saturday of September to the first Sunday of October, and Chicago — a German city before it was anything else — keeps the dates. This is where to drink it: the Rosemont hall with an oompah band, the Lincoln Square rooms that came back after the old ones closed, the suburban restaurants where the schnitzel is still hammered by hand.
Coming up · Oktoberfest · coming up Sep 19
- 1
German · Rosemont · ★ 3.9 (824)
The Munich brewery's own hall, with the beer brewed on site under licence and a band on stage most nights of the festival.
Order: A liter of Hofbräu Original and the schweinshaxe
- 2
German · Chicago · ★ 4.5 (5,335)
Open since 1898 in the Loop; the family's Oktoberfest beer has been brewed for the season for decades.
Order: Wiener schnitzel with a Berghoff Oktoberfest beer
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German · Chicago · ★ 4.6 (1,400)
On Lincoln Avenue where the old Brauhaus stood, with the same address, the same beer list, and a band on weekends.
Order: Jägerschnitzel and a Spaten
- 5
German · Glendale Heights · ★ 4.5 (1,580)
A suburban German restaurant that keeps winning the argument about the best schnitzel in Chicagoland.
Order: The Platz schnitzel sampler
- 6
German · Hanover Park · ★ 4.5 (377)
Home cooking from a Bavarian kitchen in Hanover Park — the Sunday roast the suburbs drive for.
Order: Sauerbraten with spätzle and red cabbage
- 7
German · Wheeling · ★ 4.3 (345)
A Wheeling tavern with the beer steins on the wall and the wurst platter that feeds a table.
Order: The Oktoberfest platter and a Weihenstephan
- 8
German · Harwood Heights · ★ 4.5 (1,547)
The Northwest Side's German dining room since 1993, live accordion on the weekends.
Order: Rouladen, and the strudel to finish
- 9
German · Lisle · ★ 4.6 (3,005)
A lodge in Lisle with one of the longest German beer lists in the state — the west suburbs' Oktoberfest.
Order: A liter of Bavarian lager and the pork shank
- 10
German · Chicago · ★ 4.5 (5,335)
A Loop lunch counter for the days you cannot get to Lincoln Square: bratwurst, strudel, done in ten minutes.
Order: A currywurst and an apple strudel
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Palatine · ★ 4.3 (547)
A Palatine inn that cooks the German northwest suburbs' Sunday dinners and hosts its own Oktoberfest weekends.
Order: Kassler with sauerkraut
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- 14
German · Chicago · ★ 4.5 (387)
The Irving Park beer garden, Chicago's German backyard since 1965, back in business after a pause.
Order: A wurst platter in the beer garden
- 15
German · Chicago · ★ 4.7 (1,244)
The old-guard Irving Park German tavern, revived in 2023 with the schnitzel and the Bitburger intact.
Order: Schnitzel and a Bitburger
